A 17-year-old taking a walk around St. Paul’s Lake Phalen on Monday was confronted by gang members who shouted at him and his wife, “Who you bang with?” and “Are you (a) Blood?”

The teen repeatedly told the group he wasn’t in a gang, but they assaulted him and his 18-year-old wife with a baseball bat, according to petitions filed against two teens Wednesday.

Monday’s attack came just before a 7 p.m. candlelight vigil at the lake for a woman who had been attacked Friday by strangers with bats. Police continue to investigate whether the assaults are connected, but it’s looking less likely, police spokesman Peter Panos said Wednesday.

A community meeting is being planned for Monday.

“It takes so few people to disrupt the sanctity of a neighborhood,” Mayor Chris Coleman said in a statement. “It is important for us to come together as a community to keep our streets safe and our parks inviting and accessible. We will move past these recent events and grow stronger with safe neighborhoods where we can live and play.”

Though Monday’s attack involved a gang going after non-gang members, that kind of violence is rare, said Sgt. Rich Straka, a St. Paul police gang investigator.

“Almost all the time, it’s gang on gang,” he said.

Petitions filed Wednesday by the Ramsey County attorney’s office against two teens in Ramsey County Juvenile Court give this account of what happened Monday:

Wang Moua Vue, 16, told police that he was with members of the Asian Crips gang and that they had come to Lake Phalen to look for a “guy in the red shirt” they had previously assaulted.

At the lake, they saw a different person wearing red and chased the unknown male.

Saddam Chex Vang, 17, told police he was an active member of the Asian Crips and had been with a group of about 10 that had gone to Lake Phalen to look for rival gang members.

The victims told police they saw a group of about five males wearing blue and chasing another male who was wearing a red shirt. The group surrounded the couple as the 17-year-old victim repeatedly told them he wasn’t in a gang.

It wasn’t clear what color clothes the couple was wearing, Panos said.

The public generally doesn’t need to worry that gang members will go after them because they’re wearing the colors of a rival gang, Straka said.

“Most of the gangs know who their rivals are, and that’s who they’re usually looking for,” he said.

Because rival gangs are often of the same race and ethnicity, teens and young adults of the same social group who aren’t in a gang but are wearing the colors of a rival gang can be more at risk, Straka said. The victims of Monday’s attack are Asian, as are the suspects.

The Asian Crips have been more active than usual lately because one of their members was shot in St. Paul in July, Straka said. The person survived. No arrests have been made, but the Crips seem to suspect a rival gang and “they’re looking for payback,” Straka said.

During Monday’s attack, two people started swinging at the 17-year-old with closed fists, one hitting him on the side of his face. The teen then realized up to 20 people were surrounding them. He tried to back away from the group, fell and hurt his foot.

Passers-by started shouting that police had been called. All but two in the group fled. One of those who remained, later identified as Wang Moua Vue, began swinging a baseball bat at the 17-year-old and struck him on the elbow and upper back.

Wang Moua Vue, also known as Bee Vue, is charged with second-degree assault and crime committed for the benefit of a gang.

When the victim’s wife tried to stop the beating, Wang Moua Vue, of Brooklyn Park, hit her on the head and upper thigh. The couple had minor injuries and declined medical attention, police have said.

Responding officers saw Wang Moua Vue — who was holding a bat — along with Saddam Chex Vang and another teen and arrested them.

Saddam Chex Vang, of St. Paul, has been charged with third-degree riot for the benefit of a gang.

The other teen is being held in the Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Center, pending further investigation, but hasn’t been charged.

The county attorney’s office has filed a motion asking Wang Moua Vue to stand trial as an adult.

Police were told a white van was connected with the attack, and officers stopped a vehicle matching its description later Monday night. The four males inside were arrested — two 17-year-olds, a 16-year-old and a 22-year-old, Richard Lor.

One of the 17-year-olds, John Xiong, of St. Paul, has been charged with possession of a firearm by a minor from an unrelated May incident, according to the county attorney’s office. The other two juveniles and Richard Lor have not been charged.

Monday’s vigil was for a woman who was attacked as she was walking around Lake Phalen early Friday.

The woman, who asked to be identified only as Tammie, has breast cancer and said she pleaded with the three strangers who came after her with baseball bats: “I have cancer. What are you beating me for?”

Tammie said they tried to smash her head repeatedly with baseball bats, but she held up her hands to protect her head. Her hands and arms took the brunt of the blows — her middle finger was severed, and she has multiple fractures in both hands and a broken wrist. She needed surgery to put pins in her left hand.

Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262.

IF YOU GO

What: Community meeting with Mayor Chris Coleman, Councilman Dan Bostrom, police, and parks and recreation staff about recent events at Phalen Park and initiatives to improve the area.

Mara Gottfried has been a Pioneer Press reporter since 2001, mostly covering public safety. Gottfried lived in St. Paul as a young child and returned to the Twin Cities after graduating from the University of Maryland. You can reach her at 651-228-5262.

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in News

MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) — The Rev. Billy Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, died Wednesday. He was 99.

The Crosswinds school building in Woodbury could reopen as a science-focused magnet school with St. Paul Public Schools as its new owner. The St. Paul school board voted 5-2 on Tuesday night to buy the building from the state for $15.3 million. The deal closes Wednesday morning. The St. Paul district was a member of the cooperative that built Crosswinds...

It may have begun as a rumor, but now it’s officially a controversy. Members of the District 833 American Indian Parent Committee urged the South Washington County School Board last week to remove an Indian head mosaic at Park High School. The artwork was installed in 1965 in the east part of the main hallway near the school gym. They...

The parent group of Minnesota Public Radio is opening an innovation center — a testing lab and co-working space for startup ventures — in downtown St. Paul’s former Ecolab Tower on Wabasha Street. American Public Media plans to open the Glen Nelson Center in the recently renovated Osborn370 building this summer. Backed by philanthropic foundations, the center will invest in...

Sun Country Airlines is cutting 350 workers from its ground service operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The Eagan-based company told employees Tuesday it will contract those jobs out to Global Aviation Services Inc. Executives say the move will make Sun County more efficient. Layoffs begin immediately, with workers able to reapply for positions with Global Aviation as soon as...

The late Spiro Pina made Olympic history in 1994 when he became the first man to compete in luge for Greece. Pina, a native of St. Paul and a dual citizen of Greece and the U.S., returned to the Winter Olympics four years later, carrying the flag for Greece in Nagano, Japan. He placed 24th both years. Now his Olympic sled,...